lived here for a week and a half, and what happened at that time was gerald ford, who had served as vice president, became president when nixon resigned. it all happened very quickly. at the time the ford family was living in many alexandria, and they'd been living there for 20 years. it was going to take a while for them to be able to move into the white house. so for a week and a half in august 1974, the president of the united states would wake up in his home on crown view drive in alexandria, and he would go out and get the paper, greet his neighbors and the media that had gathered, and then he would be escorted to d.c. so he could go to work at the white house. and alexandria police officers were detailed to provide security near his home, on the street and also assist in traffic escorts while that was going on. when world war ii hit, a lot of men had to go serve in the war, and some officers went and served in the war, so pretty soon there was a need for women to start working in the department. and that's really when they hired their first secretary, the first women were civilians